Links & Miscellany, Gallatin County, Kentucky

Gallatin County, Kentucky, 1889
(red lines are proposed railroads)
(Why does the southeast corner look wrong? Here.)

Gallatin County was the 30th county formed in Kentucky. The law enacting Gallatin County was passed on December 14, 1798 the county was formed on May 13, 1799 from parts of Franklin and Shelby Counties. Its boundaries are unchanged since February 5, 1872. It has an area of 98.8 square miles, making it the 120th largest of Kentucky's 120 counties.

Steamboat River Mileage, from a map from 1837
when Warsaw was named Fredericksburg

Can you name the 24 places in Gallatin County that
had U.S. Post Offices? The list is here.

The Daily Steamboat from Warsaw to Madison was the Hattie Brown.
The picture is here; the text is here.

Gallatin County sites placed on the National Places of Historical Places are here.

"The Louisville Journal states that on Friday night, December 27, Capt.. Fry, of Company B, Twentieth Regiment, started out from Warsaw, Ky., with a file of men for Eagle Creek, about 13 miles from the village, having been ordered to arrest Capt. Washington R. Sanders, and break up a company of Secessionists, who rendezvoused at his house. When they reached the house of Mr. Sanders he was not to be found. Upon searching the premises a 6-pound cannon was found buried, together with six kegs of gunpowder, a quantity of rifles, bowie-knives, pistols, swords and percussion caps." NY Times, January 4, 1862

"T. U. R. Key [!], one of the rampant rebels arrested at Warsaw, Ky., a few days ago managed to escape from confinement in Cincinnati on Sunday. Four soldiers chased him, and after over-taking him were obliged to give him a severe blow with a musket before he would come to terms and return to his quarters." NY Times, January 9, 1862

The steamer Gen. Buell was detained at Ghent and Warsaw by the Confederate home guard. In 1866. Read the story here.

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture's assessment of agriculture in Gallatin County, in 1898-1899 can be found here. (pdf)

Gallatin County News Editor Ed Lamkin rants about all this talk about
a depression in a letter to the Courier-Journal in 1931. Read it here.

This list of Gallatin County deaths from WWII is from
the National Archives. There's a key to what the
various abbreviations mean here, and the actual list is here.

In 1897, to celebrate his 100th birthday, James Beatty
Ireland remembers his life in Gallatin County. An excerpt is here.

A status report from the Superintendent of Schools in Gallatin County from 1900 is here.

...and a false arrest case from the Civil War, here.
or, in its terms, "the War of the Rebellion"

"Last Saturday night four men who were over the river in Indiana at a saloon known as the "Lost Boy" narrowly escaped drowning when the skiff in which they were crossing sprang a leak and sank with them. Fortunately, the river was low and they were able to walk ashore." from The Warsaw Advocate, 11-26-1887.

The Kentuckiana Digital Library has a number of Gallatin
County images. Quality is erratic, but it's worth a look, here.

The Kentucky Historical Society's Gallatin County images can
be found here. Click on the Gallatin box when you get there.

In 1969, Edna Talbott Whitley compiled a list of Cabinetmakers
in Kentucky. The Gallatin County portion of that list is here.

In 1919, there was a farm census, counting livestock, crops and farms. Gallatin County's is here.

On August 4, 1852, the Cincinnati Daily Gazette published the State
of Kentucky’s Hog Assessment – the number of hogs over 6 months
old per county. The number in Gallatin County was 6,034.

Information on the six covered bridges that used to serve in Gallatin County are listed in the data base at web site of Kentucky Covered Bridges, here.

"Whiskey is said to be making war in Warsaw and never misses fire; kills in from fourteen days to three months, and the Record makes war upon whiskey, but says 'If you drink, go to Pulliam, who keeps pure copper whiskey.' That is as if the preacher should say 'If you will go to the devil, go to the one who keeps the best brimstone.'" Carrollton Democrat, January 25, 1873

The origins of the names Warsaw and Fredericksburg, here.
Hint: It's not Thaddeus of Warsaw.

In 1871, the New York Democrat reports 32 wealthy
widows live in Warsaw. Read it here.

The WPA Writers Project in the 1930's interviewed a number of ex-slaves. Two were from Gallatin County. Lula Chambers, once owned by prominent Ten Mile preacher David Lillard, has an account here, and Felix Lindsey's recollections are here.

Read the proposal to build a railroad through Warsaw
- The Covington, Big Bone and Carrollton Railway - here.

"We would like to see some law passed compelling able-bodied men to support their families. There are men in this town who make their wives support them, their families, and furnish them whiskey money besides." from the Warsaw news in the Covington Journal, February 4, 1871.

In 1876, the R. L. Polk Company published The Kentucky State Gazetteer and Business Directory, which listed information about virtually every town in Kentucky. The listings from Gallatin County are these:
Glencoe	Napoleon	Sparta
Sugar Creek	Walnut Lick	Warsaw

An earlier Gazetteer published in Louisville, was George W. Hawes’ Kentucky
State Gazetteer and Business Directory, for 1859 and 1860. It's pre-Civil
War, but only has detail on these two Gallatin towns:

The Louisville and Westport Railroad will soon be completed in three months. If the people along the river could be made to understand their own interest, it would be put through to Covington by this time next year - but you might as well undertake "to plow up h-ll with a bob-tail rat tied to a shingle," as to make some people see anything two feet from their nose, and the people along this route have got this near-sighted disease badly, from the indifferent way they act about this matter, which is of so much importance to ever man on the route." The Warsaw Record, reprinted in the Covington Journal of March 13, 1873

You can get information on Gallatin County ancestors by subscribing
to the mailing list created for that purpose. You'll get periodic
information, and can submit your own questions, all via email.
Sign up here for Gallatin County.
Here is a list of all available lists on Kentucky.

"Warsaw contains 116 dwellings; 63 business houses; 4 churches, Christian, Baptist, Methodist and Catholic; 3 hotels; 1 schoolhouse; 1 mill; and a court-house, clerk's office, and jail - making in all 187 buildings." the Carrollton Democrat, October 9, 1869.

Thanks to Dale Samuel for typing and sending me Rea Gano's History of Sparta, from
the March 23 & 30, 1950 issues of the Owenton News-Herald. You can read it here.

Warsaw's Richard Yates became Governor of Illinois, and
a close advisor of Abraham Lincoln. Read about him, here.

In 1930, Kentucky Progress Magazine ran a feature letting each of Kentucky's counties list their accomplishments for 1929. What Gallatin County came up with is here. (pdf)

"The Eagle Valley Telephone Company has completed its lines from Glencoe to Sparta and the exchange will be established at the residence of Mrs. Nat Carpenter. The line is now in operation." The Warsaw Independent, Dec. 22, 1906.

Obituary of Harry B. Clore, Warsaw, here.	Obituary of Dr. O. B. Yeager, Glencoe, here.	Obituary of Dr. R. P. Thomas, Glencoe, here.
Warsaw's leading merchant in the late 19th century was Capt. J. H. McDanell. His obituary is here.	Ward Yager, from the 1930 Boone Co Recorder, here.	An interview with George Winters, who remembers the Civil War in Warsaw, here.
	Confederate Veteran Col. Rod Perry's will makes interesting reading, here.	A bio of John J. Landrum is here.

In 1914, here’s what the L&N’s Industrial Freight and Shipper’s Guide had to say about:

Who went to the penitentiary from Gallatin County from
1808 t0 1830, and why? There's a list, here.

This map of Gallatin County is from 1923 (Pre-U.S.42)
Note several roads no longer exist.

Additional Links that apply to all of Northern Kentucky Views, and may or may not
be related to Gallatin County, are on the main Links & Miscellany page, here.

A List of the membership of the Masonic Lodges in Gallatin County in 1911: (pdf's)
Warsaw	Napoleon
Glencoe	Sparta